Friday, September 12, 2008

The Purity of Paul's Intention

In this year of St. Paul it would be good to pay attention to the purity of his intention as he goes about proclaiming the Good News. He says in the scriptures today, that the duty to preach has been laid upon him. He goes on to say that he did not chose the work of evangelization. Thus free from his own selfish desires he can do the Lord's work. He does not count the cost and he makes a point of telling the Corinthians this. He is totally free. Free to succeed and rejoice as well as to be rejected and suffer. He is confident in God's Love regardless of what happens. The only concern he has is that he remain close to Christ. This is a great example and challenge to us today. Often we claim that we are doing God's will or being a Christian when in fact we are doing even charitable things to gain our own satisfaction. We are obsessed with success. We want to be recognized and approved of by people even as we say we are working for God. This is the opposite of how Paul lived and worked. Today we can reflect on our own intentions and see how pure they are. Today we can pray for the grace to imitate Paul's fine example of working and living for the Lord. This is the path to holiness and peace. Humble service to the Lord by serving our families, our children, our spouses. Serving regardless of the mundane nature of our job or the repetitious nature of our daily life at home. God must be part of all that we do, beginning with our initial intention up to the end of our daily labor. Then like Paul we will receive our reward from God for the good we have done and mercy for all the times we have failed. In this as it was for Paul, we will find Peace in Christ Jesus.